I think everybody thanks. Yeah. Okay. All right. Welcome everybody to the May 20th, 2025 meeting of the Environmental Committee. We have a full agenda with three presentations. Just want to start by drawing folks' attention to the meeting summary from our February 25th meeting. And if there are no changes to that, we'll consider that accepted. There's also included in there an addendum which responds to a question from Supervisor of security about the payback from our ESCO energy services contracts and the addendum demonstrates the savings and the payback period for each of those projects. And I think you see some pretty impressive numbers there. It's important to note as the addendum notes that these calculations assume that utility rates remain as they are today, which would be a great thing, but I think it's reasonable to presume that over the next 20 years, electricity and natural gas might cost more than they do today, which means these savings are likely to be significantly larger than what's shown even here. So great investment for the taxpayers in those programs. We'll jump right into our first presentation, which is presentation on our county facilities zero waste program. And San Francisco and the city of San Francisco and the city of San Francisco and the city of San Francisco and the city of San Francisco and the city of environmental collaboration opportunities within Fairfax County, with Fairfax County Public Schools. This initiative led to the creation of the Joint Environmental Task Force or Jet. The Jet's Waste Management and Recycling Subcommittee set an ambitious goal to achieve zero waste by 2030. This goal set the foundation for the development of the zero waste plan. In November 2021, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors officially adopted the zero waste plan, which establishes two key goals, reduce solid waste generation by 25% from 2018 levels, and divert 90% of solid waste from being disposed of in the trash. To help achieve these goals, the Zero Waste Core team was formed in November 2021, and the implementation of the Zero Waste Program began in September 2022. The Zero Waste Courteen made up of both county and school staff, meet at least once a month to discuss operational Zero Waste initiatives at both the departmental and county-wide levels. These meetings are a platform to share innovative ideas, collaborate on shared programs, such as the overlap between the school's community and county zero waste efforts, and tackle all things related to zero waste. While the court team plays a crucial role, it does not include representatives from every county department, which can create some limitations. That's where the Zero Waste Champions Network comes in. The Zero Waste Champions Network was launched in June of 2023, consisting of up to two representatives from every county department. These champions act as liaisons between their departments and the Zero Waste team, helping to drive departmental efforts towards zero waste. The Zero Waste Action Plans and Annual Reports launched in September of 2023 are key tools to support departments and their Zero Waste efforts and track their respective progress. The second department annual plans and reports were due back in mid-March and are now posted on the Zero Waste SharePoint page, which with plans to potentially share them on our public website in the future. I'll dive deeper into the trends and goals we're seeing from departments later in this presentation. Beyond tracking and reporting, the Zero Waste team provides a valuable educational resources and opportunities for the champions. This includes the Zero Waste Toolkit with resources like the Zero Waste Event checklist and a Pick Your Own Adventure Guide to conducting a mini waste audit. We also have in-person waste audit tours and virtual trainings. Last year we hosted the first ever Zero Waste Champion Mixer, which allowed champions to connect, learn more about the program, collaborate on similar projects, and explore new ways to implement Zero Waste in their departments. The continued success of the Zero Waste Champions Network relies on active participation across all county departments. The newly updated Zero Waste Dashboard is an internal tool designed for county staff to explore the principles of Zero Waste and track the types and amounts of waste generated across county operations. It serves as a resource to better understand our environmental impact while providing insights into our progress. The Zero Waste team collaborates closely with various departments to collect and analyze waste data, including challenging metrics such as a contracted generated waste. For example, the Facilities Management Division works alongside its contractors to collect detailed reports on recycled and reused materials from their projects, ensuring comprehensive waste tracking. In addition to data tracking, the Zero Waste Dashboard includes a highlight reel to celebrate departments that have made significant strides in Zero Waste. These success stories not only recognize achievements, but also encourage other departments to embark on their Zero Waste initiatives. To better understand the types of waste generated by county operations and identify areas for targeted waste reduction, the Zero Waste team with the help of a consultant conducted two week long waste audits in 2023. These audits analyzed trash, recycling, and composting at a variety of locations, including government centers, parks, fire stations, libraries, the detention center, and multiple schools. The insights from these audits will guide the county's approach to reducing waste and improving recycling practices. For example, during an audit of the government center trash compactor, we discovered that 20% of the waste stream was recyclable material, meaning a significant portion of what's currently ending up in the trash could be diverted through existing recycling programs. Additionally, in our single stream compactor, we found a 45% contamination rate, highlighting a clear need for targeted education and outreach to ensure not only that we are recycling, but that we are recycling right. The full waste audit report is available to county staff on the Zero Waste SharePoint page. Departments are asked to set a minimum of three achievable goals each calendar year to support our Zero Waste efforts. Action Plans were due back in March and we've seen a variety of exciting initiatives. Many of these goals align with the four R's, reach out, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Heat trends for 2025 Action Plans include expanding internal networks by forming green teams within departments, launching waste reduction programs tailored to specific department waste streams such as eliminating paper-based processes and adopting a by-only what's needed approach. Reuse initiatives like replacing single-use materials with reusable alternatives and diversion programs including composting and battery recycling. In 2024, many departments made significant progress or fully achieved their goals. Some highlights include composting programs at county facilities such as the government Center, the Public Safety and Transportation Operations Center, parts of Kelly Square, and several DPWS sites. Department waste audits conducted by agencies such as DOF and planning and development to better understand their waste streams and identify opportunities to reduce or recycle more effectively. And the digitization of processes through platforms like DocuSign, which have helped reduce paper consumption across departments. I'll expand more on County Department's zero waste achievements in the next slide. Many County departments have made significant strides in advancing zero waste efforts. Here are just a few success stories. The park authorities hidden Oak's Nature Center center integrated reusable foodware into their nature-themed birthday parties, reducing single-use items and promoting sustainability. They also added on-site composting. Vehicle services switched to purchasing bulk fluids at their Newington location, effectively cutting down on plastic container waste. DPWES Solid Waste provided recycling bins for dozens of county facilities in need, as well as updated signage on waste containers to reflect current recyclable materials. They also introduced battery recycling boxes for use across departments, insured educational materials about the importance of battery recycling. The Department of Precurement and Material Management's Logistics Center surplus program facilitates thousands of auctions each year. In the past year, over half of these auctions were internal. Intocating that a growing number of county departments and schools are opting to reuse items rather than purchase new ones. This shift is partially attributed to increased outreach and promotion of the surplus program in support of the county's zero waste initiatives. The effectiveness of this effort is reflected in the internal reuse rate, which rose significantly from 25% in 2023 to almost 52% in 2024. In addition to advancing the county's waste reduction goals, the program is also delivering measurable financial benefits. In the first two quarters of the current fiscal year alone, the county achieved an estimated $188,000 in cost of avoidance by reusing items rather than procuring new equipment and materials. In October of 2023, the Zero Waste team launched the Zero Waste Party Pack Program, a free initiative available to all county departments. The program provides reusable foodware for county hosted events, helping to reduce the waste generated at these gatherings. To date, the Party Pack Program has been utilized at over 73 county hosted events, resulting in the prevention of over 25,000 pieces of disposable foodware. Additionally, the park authority and collaboration with our world used reusable cups and food boats at the Earth Day 2024 event. This initiative resulted in the elimination of over 1,000 single use items. DPMM, in collaboration with OEC, launched a joint initiative to utilize plastic bag text funding to support operational zero waste projects. Many of the county department's success stories, I mentioned earlier, were made possible through this valuable funding source. These projects demonstrate the wide-ranging impact of plastic bag text funding, helping departments make strides towards reducing waste and promoting sustainability. The Zero Waste Plan sets an aspirational goal of zero waste by 2030. Fairbax County is one of the few municipalities in the US to establish a zero waste goal for government and schools on top of a community-wide zero waste goal. A 90% diversion rate has yet to be achieved by a municipality in the United States. As of 2023, county operations has achieved a second is the second is the second is the second is the second highlighting the need for continued vigilance and proactive waste reduction strategies. It's important to recognize the relationship between waste reduction and diversion. To achieve a 90% diversion rate, we must also reduce the overall volume of waste generated. Simply put, managing less waste makes reaching out, reaching our diversion goals more feasible and sustainable. We acknowledge the challenges ahead, given current and anticipated economic conditions, securing the necessary resources and investments may be difficult. Despite this, thanks to collaboration across departments and strong support from county leadership, we've already made meaningful progress and we remain committed to advancing towards our 2030 zero waste goals. With that, I will hand it over to my colleague Natalie to conclude this presentation. Thank you, Sam. Good morning. I'm Natalie Owen, Sustainable Procurement Team Lead with NDPMM. I have just one slide to share about a project separate but related to the Zero Waste Program. Both the operational energy strategy and the Zero Waste Plan call out sustainable procurement as a key strategy to reduce our government's greenhouse gas footprint and to reduce our solid waste respectively. And although emissions from our purchasing are not included in the numerical OES goal, those emissions still matter quite a lot. This is why DPMM completed a scope three or supply chain greenhouse gas analysis using a model from the EPA and working with OEC, a consultant and others including the schools. As you can see on the slide we now have a high-level estimate of the total emissions resulting from county and schools purchasing in fiscal year 2023. It turns out that those emissions are greater than our direct emissions from driving county and schools vehicles, and also greater than those resulting from our facilities. The study also shows which areas of purchasing may have the greatest opportunities for emissions reduction. This graph shows the greatest emissions coming from spending on construction, health and human products and services, automotive and transportation, waste management and technology. There is much more information available to departments on DPMM's SharePoint page. We're now sharing this information with key departments. We had an initial presentation to unveil the results and are now in the middle of workshops to explore possible strategies for more sustainable procurement. Thank you. That concludes our presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions. Okay. Thank you. A couple of items that I just want to highlight. If you go back to slide seven, the department action plans, We noted noted were due in March. Do we have 100% of department submitting those action plans? You didn't say 100% so I assume the answer is no. We don't yet have excuse me, Lee Ann Pender, director of the Department of Procurement and Material Management. We do not yet have 100% participation. We have done a lot of campaigning with those departments where we are still looking for them to submit the reports. And we have received a number in the past couple of weeks, but we still have a handful of agencies we're working with to get those reports. Okay. So our goal is still 100%. Okay. We need to get those from everybody because we need everybody's ideas to make this happen. So we need to prioritize that. On slide eight, you mentioned the surplus program, which is just an incredible and successful program. And congratulations to everyone who's part of it and I just want to point out the $188,000 in savings. That was in one quarter. That was over two quarters. Got it. Okay. Great. And then finally on slide 10, I mean, the obvious, we've made progress in terms of reduction. Certainly some of that driven by the fact that folks were working remote, although not as much anymore, but we have the opportunity to sustain and build on that progress in terms of reduction and still a long way to go with diversion. That's just just a harder nut to crack. And the perennial challenge here is, how do you communicate to people, what and how they can compost and recycle things? And I'm reasonably knowledgeable on the topic, and when we go down to lunch after this, I'm gonna struggle with those signs to figure out exactly what I can put in the trash, recycle and compost. So continuing to work on clarifying that and simplifying it, especially for folks like me who struggle with it is something we need to work on. Mr. Chairman? Yeah, thank you. I couldn't agree more. I guess the question I have on slide 10 because to be fair and measure our progress here, this is a substantial improvement from where we've been before. And I think a lot of that is the work of the people here who are here and a lot of our county staff. My question is, because schools were mentioned a couple times, are they included in all the metrics throughout this presentation, or do we know how they're pacing compared to the county? I mean, they're not remote working, they're every day. And I've always felt like, you know, we can make a big dent as a county, but when you think about our school system and the amount of food, and anyone who's been in one of our cafeterias during the school day knows, there's great opportunities there. So I'm just curious if this is inclusive of school operations and what type of regular reporting, are we getting from them on their progress? Sure, absolutely, that is a great question. This particular slide here does not include schools as a part of metric tracking. We do have two representatives from schools here today. If you have any particular questions, as it relates to, there's your waste plan or progress. Yeah, I think it would be helpful for us to get, you know, an update on where they are. Because honestly, I think there's a lot of work being done on the school side and we should be capturing that as part of our success metrics here. Is that something that if they can provide that today you'd like to hear or come back to get a follow up I don't need them to provide it today. I just think as part of our regularly regular here, we had joint task force with schools on environmental initiatives. We've included them in all of our plans. They're an important partner that's going to help us move the needle here. And whenever we have these presentations coming to our board, I think it would be helpful for us to see what's happening with our school partners as a part of the overall program here that we're trying to implement just to make sure that we're tracking and if there's something we're missing, this would be a great opportunity to have that conversation. But I think for future moving forward, I'd like to get a similar update to this as to where they are. But then also in the future when we get these updates, including them in our numbers so that we know what the complete picture looks like. Okay, we'll be happy to work with schools and start including their metrics in the future presentations. Great, thank you. Mr. Prosser, Alcorn? Yeah, just very quickly on slide 10. I may have missed it, but I think there's some more detail on both goal one and goal two that has been published. Is that correct? I'm interested in understanding a little bit more what goes into those calculations. Is that something? Have you shared that recently with the board? Is there anything that goes into more detail on that? I don't believe we've shared anything recently with the board. Okay, good. I didn't mess. Yeah, if you could share a little bit more about how those calculations were made, that's really important stuff, particularly, that would be great. And then my other question is just on 11, slide 11, I guess for us as Fairfax County, all of our scope three emissions are supply chain, right? I was trying to think do we have, we don't have any downstream emissions from the county because otherwise that would be scope two or scope one I guess, right? So we just have to worry about supply chain for scope three, is that correct? We calculated only our supply chain and also our downstream waste emissions. So waste we did. Okay. However, there are 15 scope three categories as you may be aware. And we suspect many of them either may not apply to us or maybe minimal compared to the supply chain and our waste. So we're not missing anything significant at least as far as you can tell on how we're doing scope three calculations. I don't think that we're missing anything but we are not quite knee deep in some of the reviewing some of the data and developing some of the new data and we'll be doing more of that as we work with other county agencies. That's great and I know the methodologies for calculating scope three is evolving across the world as well. Okay, thank you. Okay, we'll do Supervisor Herdy and then Lusk and then we probably need to move on to the next presentation. Just a couple of quick questions. Slide six, the 45% contamination on the recycle compactors, that's kind of higher than industry. And I'm sorry, Mr. Presentation, but the pull to string on that is that people wish cycling cycling not knowing which bin to put it in. Is it the collection and not collecting separately or is it them throwing it in the wrong garbage? Is not do we know the answer to that and I hope we can pull the string on that if we haven't. Right as a educated guest primarily it is due to cycling, particularly because a lot of this contamination was like cables, extension cords, big mop buckets, things that people know can be recycled, but may not know where to recycle it. So they simply put it in single stream recycling rather than through our egoaste recycling program. That's more of an education issue than anything else. Correct. I was just curious. That's a pretty high number compared to what you see in a purple bin collection kind of thing. Did you want to jump on that? Yeah, just real quick. And then just remember everybody, I know many of us have the rechargeable battery boxes. That is the last thing you should ever put into your blue bin. You know, never put batteries into your blue bins. So, right, public service announcement. Yes. All right. So, brother, are you good? Yeah. And how much are we spending on the zero waste party packs? And where's that money coming from? So the zero waste party packs themselves are a free program available to the county. The startup of the program, we have three party packs, each party pack, conserve 100 attendees. I believe all together it was less than $1,000 and we utilized the plastic bag packs funding to procure those items. All right, thank you. Lusk, Patrick, Jimenez, all very quick if possible. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll thank Supervisor Herty for asking the first part of my question. And the second part of it is you mentioned there was a two week long kind of survey that was done in 2023 fire stations, parks, ADC schools. Do we have the same data for them on the contamination of their waste stream. Yes, so we did a breakdown of each of the locations that we conducted a waste audit for in the full breakdown. So contamination rates things we found in those types of waste streams can be found within the waste audit report available on SharePoint. Thank you. I'll take a look at that. Okay, Patrick. I didn take a look at that. Okay, Paltrow. What's this? I didn't have my hand up, but I just want to thank you and just reiterate the need for education. So across the board, and as we work with schools and in our community, clearly, in addition to metrics, continuing to do a better job in educating, thank you. Okay, so we'll rise our him and us. I'll just say what we need to do is rethink the education piece because people go. They're interested in doing some recycling or doing recycling, then they get confused or they don't understand it, then they get frustrated, when the next step after being frustrated is you give up. So I highly suggest that if this current education plan isn't working, we need to rethink what we're doing. Thank you. I have an intermediate step which is start cursing people before I give up. All right, thank you all. Let's change over for our next presentation, climate action implementation, progress and highlights. Part one. I'm going to put it in the fridge. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Board and good morning. My name is Alison Homer and I am a climate planner for the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination and the Program Manager for Resilient Fairfax. I'm joined by OEC leadership and other colleagues at the table who are available to answer questions. Today I'll be providing an update on overarching climate metrics and resilience related highlights. And then our deputy director, Nellie Law, will provide the second half of the presentation, which is focused on emissions reduction programs. Next slide, please. Sorry. Fairfax County is doing our part to address both the cause and the effects of climate change by implementing our three climate plans. For today's presentation, we're focused on only two of those plans, which are circled on this slide in black, the Community Wide Climate and Energy Action Plan or C-CAP and Resilient Fairfax. An update on the third plan, operational energy strategy, which is for emissions reduction in government operations specifically, was previously presented to this committee on February 25th. In addition to this brief presentation, there are several resources where detailed updates can be found, including our 2024 Climate Progress and Highlights Report, which is included in today's package. Our online data dashboard, our newsletter, and many online resources. Additionally, we would like to emphasize that while our office, OEC, coordinates the planning and implementation of the county's climate plans. It is truly a whole of government effort and we are successful thanks to the involvement of over 150 staff from 25 agencies in addition to the broader community. This slide provides a high level overview of key metrics from C-CAP or the Community-Wide Energy and Climate Action Plan. This is the plan that is focused on reducing emissions in the community as opposed to the government. Some of these data are not available yearly, so for the top yellow bar, MWCog is currently updating the greenhouse gas emissions inventory based on 2023 data, and those data are scheduled to be available by the end of the year. However, we do know that the current overall community energy consumption data, which is a key component of greenhouse gas emissions, continues to show a decline despite an increase in population. Other success stories include our progress towards the goal of retrofitting at least 100,000 housing units with energy efficiency measures by 2030, which can be seen in the fourth bar down in blue. We are ahead of pace and now have over 66,000 known households who have participated in energy efficiency programs, largely through Dominion Energy's programs. We also have seen an increase in electric vehicle adoption. The EV market is advancing quickly with more models being added each year. Currently there are 140 EV models available in the United States, which is a 50% increase over the year. Based on 2023 data, approximately 3.4% of light duty vehicles registered in Fairfax County are EVs, which is more than triple the number that was registered in 2020. This slide provides a few high-level resilience-related metrics, which are focused on the effects of climate change. Resilience metrics are a bit trickier to express as status bars because we are seeking to adapt to climate hazards as the hazards themselves intensify. Additionally, some resilience metrics have a goal of increasing as shown with the arrows pointing to the right, while others have a goal of decreasing as shown with the arrows pointing left. The green dots on the right side of the slide show metrics where progress has been made since the last update. I'd like to direct your attention to a new metric, the light blue bar just above the orange row, which highlights the new flood mitigation assistance program or F-MAP. F-MAP was launched last year by DPWS and Northern Virginia soil and water conservation district to help residents flood proof their homes. They've already had great success. Because this presentation covers calendar year 2024 only, the bar here only shows six months of progress. So from last July to December, but they've made additional progress in 2025. That's not shown on this bar. I'd also like to point your attention to another new metric which can be seen in the second orange bar. This metric is focused on helping households who don't have air conditioning equipment at home during the summer heat. Currently, it's estimated that 20,793 households in Fairfax County lack AC equipment at home, which is 5% of households. Those 20,000 households are the denominator for this metric. The 0.7% shown in this bar represents the 153 small AC units that have been provided to households in need since 2020 through county programs. Our new AC Rescue Program, which was piloted last year and has now launched formally, is focused on addressing the SCAP. As we scale up the AC Rescue Program, we are working to refine reasonable goals for this effort. As we we continually also track local climate trends to keep tabs on what we're facing in Fairfax County locally, these data on the graphs are temperature, precipitation, and storm measurements taken from Delus Airport or tracked in the NOAA storm database over the last several decades. As you can see, we are experiencing notably warmer, wetter, weirder conditions, and those trends are projected to continue. Resilience and adaptation efforts help us better with stand and adapt to these changing conditions without suffering permanent losses in infrastructure or lives. You may recall that because the county is responsible for implementing all three climate plans simultaneously, we've taken the route of greatest efficiency and have consolidated strategies from all three climate plans into the six strategy groups that you see here on this slide. The highlights and the upcoming slides are organized according to these groups. Staff from 25 applicable agencies participate in these groups, efficiently integrating the strategies from their plans into their existing day-to-day work. Strategy Group 2 is focused on updates to development codes, policies, and plans. Our partners in Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, Department of Planning and Development, land development services, and other agencies have made progress in flood risk reduction, climate-related comprehensive plan, draft amendments, and zoning ordinance amendments, and building code updates. I'd particularly point your attention to zoning ordinance amendments where DPD made notable climate-related updates in 2024, including the amendments for data centers, parking reimagined, and landscaping and screening, which focused on increasing tree canopy and parking lots. Additionally, zoning staff are currently researching battery energy storage systems, which facilitate the use of resilient backup power and facilitate the use of renewable energy. Strategy group three is focused on community facing services, aid, engagement, and incentives. The group working on these strategies is composed of service oriented and engagement staff from over 20 agencies, including neighborhood and community services, public schools, department of family services, emergency management, and many more. Among other topics, agencies continue to work together to provide a range of critical services related to extreme heat. Heat is by far the most dangerous climate hazard locally and in the United States, silently causing far more fatalities and illnesses than any other natural hazard combined. The county saw a steep increase in cooling center use last summer, which corresponded to an increase in extreme heat days. Neighborhood and community services reported that there were 1,300 visits to cooling centers in 2024, up from 251 in 2023. The Department of Family Services also saw an increase in applications for cooling assistance, which is a program to help low-income residents pay for AC-related bills during the summer among other services. Also in 2024, the county provided training, updated heat communications toolkits, tracking, and enhanced services. We continue to work together across agencies to enhance heat service access and awareness. One of the key gaps we've been addressing as it relates to extreme heat is access to air conditioning equipment at home which is not well covered by other programs. For example, last summer staff were alerted to a heat emergency at Harmony Place Mobile Home Park where there were dozens of homes that were dangerously hot in the extreme heat, including children and homes that were over 100 degrees inside, a baby with reported heat-related illness, a pregnant mother with no AC and other unsafe situations. Unfortunately, despite the clear need due to restrictions that are set at the state level outside of county control, none of those particular homes were able to receive help from the existing cooling assistance program. This situation poignantly and clearly illuminated the gaps in service. Rather than turning away, the county fulfilled our purpose of ensuring the health safety and welfare of our residents. And we quickly collaborated across agencies with supervisor lusts Office and with rebuilding together facts and other local nonprofits to pilot the AC Rescue Program, which is designed to fill this gap in AC equipment access. We were able to swiftly install 31 small AC units at Harmony Place and simultaneously connect the residents to other critical repairs and a range of social services. Since this pilot we're pleased to announce that we have successfully transitioned AC Rescue into a standing program. To make the most efficient use of county resources, AC Rescue is being implemented through an existing county contract for home repair and accessibility modifications and is using existing funding that was allocated for resilient fare facts implementation. Additionally, we are proud of the fact that AC Rescue is not duplicating any existing cooling services. We are instead working seamlessly across agencies to fill critical holes in the safety net that are otherwise unfilled. Notable progress has also been made in flood risk reduction services. The Department of Public Works and Environmental Services and Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District launched the flood mitigation assistance program last July to help residents protect themselves from flood damage through flood proofing techniques like flood proof windows, some pump backup power, utility covers, and more. To date, the district has received applications from 35 flood prone households and dispersed 73,000 in flood proofing partial reimbursements. This is a cost share and reimbursement program, so residents are reimbursed up to 50% of the cost of their flood proofing installations. The district also continues their success in stormwater conservation assistance program, which helps to reduce flood risk in yards through bioretension and pervious surface removal by soils and much more. And additionally, DPWS continues their diligent work responding to flooding or drainage service requests submitted by residents. The final resilience related highlight that we wanted to share today is the Resilient Trees Initiative. Just last week during a severe storm, lives were tragically lost in our county due to the falling of large trees. One might assume that this is an unusual phenomenon, but down trees are actually the most common reason for weather-related road closures in Fairfax County and are responsible for even more road closures than car accidents. This increasing phenomenon is concerning for human safety, logistical and transportation access, and ecological reasons. We are losing an ever-growing number of trees to the intensifying climate hazards and our hardiness zones have already shifted northward. Tree losses also work against the county's tree planting and tree canopy expansion progress. The good news is that certain local tree species are more resilient to climate hazards and are also more adaptable to change. OAC has been working in collaboration with urban foresters in LDS, DPWS, and parks to compile extensive research on over 250 local tree species. We've scored each tree according to over 30 factors, including resilience to wind, heat, flooding, and many other hazards. We've also considered the adaptation benefits that certain trees provide, such as above average stormwater absorption, or the ability to serve as a wind barrier for communities. All of this research is being used to inform the current draft amendments to the tree sections of the public facilities manual. Together with our fellow agencies we'll be conducting a full schedule of engagement to gather feedback on those amendments in the coming months. Another tree-related news LDS last year changed the recommended tree planting window from September to October because September's are now too hot for reliable saplings survivability. Updates on our tree planting efforts in urban heat islands will be presented as part of the presentation coming up next. That concludes our brief overview of recent progress updates on the resilient Fairfax side. So I thank you for your time and we are happy to answer any questions you may have. Okay, thank you. I think that last point is astounding in our lifetimes, in the lifetimes of everyone here in this room, the tree planting window in our region has shifted an entire month because climate change is accelerating that rapidly. for where you noted the pending cog data. It sounded like you did hint at anticipated positive news from that data. So are we reasonably confident that when we get that MWCog data that this 30% will move in the right direction a little bit. I'm putting you on the spot there asking, okay, yeah, John, give us that prediction. Good morning, it's John Morrill. I'm the director of OEC. We have access to utility building data, and so we see that utility consumption has been flat or continuing to nudge downward. The cog inventory takes into account that plus they use their transportation model, which is really the only way to get a transportation emissions. I'm optimistic that it might continue going down partly because the electric grid also continues to get cleaner. But the single one big wild card will be to what extent the transportation emissions have remained flat or declining or if they've gone back up as we've returned more to more work in the offices. OK. On the energy supply row there, just so I'm understanding that, obviously, you know, that is driven primarily by the implementation of the CEA and policy decisions at the state in a national level, I guess. But this metric presumably also is impacted by the number of solar installs that take place in the county. In other words, if we woke up tomorrow and there were 100,000 new solar installs, we would have made some progress on this or is this purely the energy supply going on to the grid from other sources? You're correct. There are Fairfax County specific indicators that support continued reduction, including the deployment of solar, the deployment of energy efficiency upgrades in the residential and commercial stock, and plus shifts in the fuel economy of vehicles. Ironically, the penetration of electric vehicles, although small thus far, each one does reduce petroleum use, which is substantially dirtier than the electric vehicles. So it is, the grid emissions is significant, but there's still the energy efficiency and fuel switching to solar, which helps drive our emissions lower. Okay, and then 2. one, I think resilient Fairfax is a real success story. And the implementation has been very impressive. And I think it's successful because we've treated it a little bit like one Fairfax in that it's not a standalone plan to sit on a shelf or to be implemented independent of others. It's really a philosophy that is now imbuing all of our work. And I think you've done a good job of demonstrating that. The final point, and this maybe will be a good segue to the next presentation. I think what I continue to struggle with with respect to slide four, especially in the outcome goals, is of all the activities we were undertaking, how do we identify those that best move the needle and give us the most leverage per dollar, per staff hour of staff time to make progress toward these goals. and that's a hard thing to figure out, but I think we have to keep pushing in that direction. Let me go ahead and open it up, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, thank you. So I agree with all the points you just made. I mean, the resilient one, I think for those of us in South County, what we just experienced on Friday night was another example that confirms definitely wetter, weirder stuff that we just don't see. And it is disturbing and I think points to the importance of this work that we're doing. Slide four, you know, huge improvements in this. I mean, I wish I had in front of me the original we had when we first started, but this is a significant improvement. I guess the question I have is where we're performing the least is in the Energy Supply Virginia Clean Economy Act, 100% clean by 2045. And I'm concerned that normal everyday people looking at this might look at that section and equate that to a failure of our county policies and our county goals. And in fact, it's not. So maybe take a moment to explain in that where the Virginia Clean Out Economy Act intersects what's actually happening on the ground to only be at 11% what are the drivers of that low number and what if any are the drivers that the county has any influence over? Yes, thank you. I think on the dashboard we dive into that in greater detail. And so we'll continue to make note of that. Yeah, I think it's important because a lot of these are things that we can make a direct impact on. That one to me seems like the further outside of our direct control and also the one coincidentally, the lowest performing on our chart. And so I think just emphasizing that and certainly how that intersects with what our legislative program, language and legislative goals are for Richmond and what we, the efforts we go through with the legislative committee, I think if there's some things that we can draw from that specific section that need to be a, we need to better align with our legislative strategies is something we need to be, we need to be clear on. Thank you. Okay, Supervisor Smith. Thank you. Just a quick question. The research on the 250 plus local trees is that available somewhere? We will be conducting outreach on that research and also on the proposed amendments to the public facilities manual in the upcoming months. So we're happy to share all the things. I'm curious to see the information about the trees. Sure. Yeah. We can definitely provide the matrix itself. That would be great. I'll drink that out. Thank you. Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to take a minute here and thank Alison Homer for what she did in Harmony Place. I don't know if many of you have ever been inside of a mobile manufactured housing unit. But what you'll notice when you go into one that does not have air conditioning, it is excruciatingly hot because the insulation in those units are not comparable to insulation in a home. And the conditions under which many of these residents were living was pretty horrid. So I'm delighted that we were able to make some improvements to help a number of them and to also acknowledge the work that was done by rebuilding together ensuring that everyone that needed the AC units were able to receive them. You mentioned that you've kind of extended this now into a program, so I want to commend you for that as well. Could you share a little bit about what's the next kind of extended this now into a program. So I want to commend you for that as well. Could you share a little bit about kind of what's the next kind of process and program for those to receive these units and kind of what's the plan? How many might you be able to provide over the next year or so? Thank you, Supervisor Lesk. So we have made an amendment to an existing housing contract for home repair and accessibility modifications. We added AC Rescue to the scope of that work. That contract had serendipitously been awarded to rebuilding together, so they were already very familiar with AC Rescue. We just had a signature on that contract this week, and so we are anticipating that there will be a few different avenues of referrals to AC Rescue. One of the main ways is rejections from cooling assistance. So when Department of Family Services receives requests for help rather than having to turn residents away, they can say, well, we can't help you, but AC Rescue can. So because we know that those residents definitely need help and that they're not receiving it. Other referrals may come from housing and community developments, mobile home outreach, or rebuilding together's existing work. So if they're already repairing a home and they notice that it doesn't have AC, they can like internally refer and add AC rescue to the scope. No, I appreciate that very much. And I'll say this if there's an opportunity, I'm willing to come out and help. And I know I'm not super handy, but I was able to hold and do a little bit of measurements on the day that you held the event in harmony. So I'm happy to do that again. So thank you very much. OK. I think we can move to our final presentation. We don't need to switch. I think Neely is going to lead us there, so take it away. All right. Good morning, Chairman McKay, supervisor Walkinsha, and members of the board. My name is Neely Law. I'm the Deputy Director of the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, and I'm here to provide you with the second half of our progress report on climate action. This focuses specifically on progress made in our community programs implemented as part of C-CAP, the Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan. These programs are a part of Group 3, the Interagency Team that focuses on community services, aid, engagement, and incentives, along with an update from Group 4, the Interagency Team for natural resources. I'd like to begin with public information and outreach. Public information and outreach continue to be an area of focus in 2024. It is THE way for the county to demonstrate leadership in climate action. Notable in 2024 were the proclamations and video from the board of supervisors, along with updates to the climate action dashboard, that is the central location for sharing progress with the community. Our office continue to develop a robust information and awareness portfolio to ensure our resources meet people where they are in their climate action journey. For example, staff actively engaged with the community at multiple events in multiple languages as well as partnering with organizations. We've seen our impact grow with social media metrics that continue to be above the industry average. To bolster community action in 2024, OEC launched the Sustain Fairfax campaign, a public awareness campaign aimed at fostering environmental stewardship and promoting sustainable practices. Shortly after its launch, the Sustain Fairfax Challenge was implemented in February of this year to personalize climate action for residents and to create friendly competition amongst groups. By joining the challenge, people receive tips and resources on climate actions and and to track their actions along with their impact. In 2024, the Charge Up Fairfax program moved from a pilot phase to a full program. This program helps community associations access electrical vehicle charging for their residents and guests through technical and financial assistance. OEEC engaged with 20 communities since 2023 pilot phase with 14 new communities accepted in 2024. We are pleased to note that communities with high or higher vulnerability as identified through the one-fire fax vulnerability index participate in the program at a similar rate as other community associations. Rahma Mitri, the new program manager for church up, is working on exciting new developments in 2025 to include promotional partnership with the Minine Energy to align our programs while extending the eligibility to other organizations in the county. Continuing with our residential program, C-CAP has a renewable energy goal that is reliant on the Virginia Clean Economy Act. We are seeing however the benefits of promoting two group solar purchasing programs that has a consistent increase in home solar installations. In 2024, there were close to 2000 signups between these two programs resulting in 135 installations. Both programs are currently accepting applications for a limited time. So as you can see with our home programs, the goal of 100,000 Retrofit homes by 2030 is making study progress with 66 homes participating. That's a 14,000 increase since 2023. As you can see from the blue bars, residents largely are participating in the Dominion program, but there remains to be continued interest in the Fairfax County offering of services as well as community housing partners. In addition to programs supporting residents on their climate action, our office provides resources to support organizations. The Energy Conservation Assistance Program, or ECAP, provides financial incentives for community organizations, nonprofits, and places of worship for secular purposes to make energy upgrades to their properties. ECAP is managed by our office and administered by our partner, the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. The program started in 2016 and has approved over $155,000 in grants in support of 28 energy projects completed or in progress by the end of 2024. Those funds have leveraged more than $900,000 worth of energy efficiency upgrades in the community. A couple of projects supported by this program include an LED lighting project by Rising Hope Mission Church in the Franconia district. This project expects to have a projected annual energy savings of 70% or $3,000 annually. The typical payback period for this type of retrofit is about two to three years depending on the size of that project ECAV also supported two solar projects adding 160 kilowatts of clean energy to campuses of holy comforter in the Hunter mill district and Akitink, Unitarian Universalist Church in the Springfield district these projects will continue to contribute to goals of net zero for these properties. Another sector of focus is the business community. The Green Business Partners Program recognizes businesses that are pursuing sustainable business practices that advance climate action. Peer-to-peer learning or businesses learning from one another is a key focus of the program. As of 2024, there is a membership of 51 businesses and organizations that include 21 leaders, 20 members, and 10 allies. To advance the peer-to-peer learning program model, OEC provided a number of engagement, educational, and recognition opportunities for our partners. We greatly appreciate our partnership with Channel 16 to produce our leader spotlight video series highlighting leaders and our partners groundswell. Also a green business partner leader for hosting a networking event that get a 37 attendees to discuss and share sustainability and business successes. A key theme shared by our partners is being sustainable, generates multiple sources of values or business. It's not just the bottom line, but it's regarding recruitment and retention of employees. One unique opportunity in 2024 was pairing a green business partner with the George Mason University Master of Business Administration to help them with their business development plans. In a final program update, let's talk a little bit more about trees and upgrades from the Group 4 interagency team work on natural resources. Want to emphasize here that trees are essential working partners in the community as they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere mitigating climate change and its effects. You heard from Allison about the work being done to identify tree species that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change. I'd like to highlight the good fortune we have in Fairfax County of over 20 community and county tree planting programs. That plant over thousands of trees throughout the county every year. In 2024, 268 trees specifically were planted at schools and at government sites. Through the county's urban community and forestry division, the county prioritizes planting efforts where the urban heat island is greatest, which also helps our most vulnerable residents in the county. This will help fully, hopefully also close our gap on those remaining census districts that have a goal of 50% tree canopy as part of our climate action goals. I'd like to close this presentation to focus on our priorities for 2025 and 2026. Our continued progress will require a strategic focus on key program areas and sectors that address the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, buildings and transportation, along with focusing on residences that are impacted greatest by the impacts of climate change. Residential programming is one of those focus areas. Our office is in the process of developing a residential concierge service that is to launch in mid-2025. This program will provide personal technical assistance and guidance for incentives and contractors to residents wanting to improve their energy efficiency or add renewable energy to their home. This residential concierge program will complement the existing sustained Fairfax campaign and challenge that launched in 2024 and February of this year, respectively. A third area of focus is the development and implementation of an EV readiness strategy to identify those ways to address the gaps and ensure equitable access of EV charging stations within the county. The final plan is scheduled to be completed by 2025. The plan will also provide recommendations for the electrification of the county fleet. A fourth area of focus is filling the vital gap of cooling assistance within our county that Allison recently described. All of this work requires continued collaboration with other county agencies to foster a whole of government approach to implement our climate action plans. No single agency, no single person can do this work alone. Amplification of our climate work also requires building capacity through our community partners. Strengthening our relations with community-based partners is a key strategy for our outreach efforts. For example, our work with Faith Alliance for Climate Solution helps to bolster participation in the Energy Conservation Assistance Program while our work with community-based organizations such as Second Story and others helped to broaden our reach in the community. Finally this year we eagerly anticipate the update from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on the County's greenhouse gas in Venturi which will be an update for 2023 that we will receive in 2025. So in closing, the progress made to date and our work ahead is us collectively working together to achieve the common goal of carbon neutrality. Thank you. Okay, thank you. When you mentioned the residential concierge program and you said mid 2025, I was thinking in my head, how far out and then I realized we're pretty much in mid 2025. So that's imminent. Yes. Okay. We received a draft plan, recommendations. So we'll be working with staff to start setting up the website, doing a soft launch later this summer and a full launch in the fall. So progressive approach to implementation. Oh, got. Okay. So soft launch mid 2025. Right. Okay. All right. I just want to go to slide four quickly. And we're twins. Four next one. Other way. This way. Other way. Forward. There's two people. There you go. Okay. The bar graph there, just so I'm understanding it, one, the installed capacity, goal and numbers. That's total installed capacity, right? Not installed capacity via solar eyes or switched together. That's countywide, every of these. Oh, of solar that's installed, right? Not just those that happen to go through our road. Right, because we track through the permitting system and our partners with LDS, we give us up to date when members on that. And it looks to me like we are on track to exceed the 2030 goal of 46 megawatts. It can turn. Trends continue. It looks to be that way. Okay, All right. Great. All right. Mr. Chairman? Yeah. I have two questions. First, I think the climate action dashboard and all the work that's being done on social media is tremendous. I mean, I think it's just really high quality stuff. I guess my question is, do we track the data on that? A number of visits or engagement that we get in the social media post. Do you all regularly track that and then steer future information campaigns based on that? Yeah, we collect a number of metrics. Public information officer John Silcox can answer that more specifically. We have numbers for our newsletters, the number of people attending our events, webinars as well. Okay, because to me, I still think this is one of our most important tools is so many of our environmental strategies. If they're missing the mark, in most cases, it's because of the education piece that people aren't understanding all of the different parts and how they work together or what simple things they can do to make a real difference. And so I can't emphasize enough the important need of continuing that work. Because I think that's one of the reasons a lot of these needles are moving. The other question, it's a little bit harder, but on your slide nine where you have your priorities, because this is outside of our ability, I believe to do anything about, but again, it's one of these things from a legislative standpoint that we might want to consider. On your EV readiness strategy bullet itself, the number one complaint I hear from EV users all over the county is that the commercial EV chargers are broken everywhere. And the federal government had a great incentive program to get all these stood up. They stood them up through an incentive program, but there's absolutely no incentive to keep them operational. And so some of these are broken down, some of them are broken down for months and months on end, and it is maddening for EV users. And I've seen a lot of frustrated people pulling in and out of parking lots where they're there and they're broken. And so I guess my question is in the spirit of the whole of government needed. I'm assuming there's, I know the answer to this at the federal level now is not going to be any incentive to keep these operational, but is this something that any other states or localities have been able to make headway on because this is not a localized Fairfax County problem. This is a nationwide network problem where a higher percentage of units are down increasingly every year and as much aggression has been put in or energy has put into installing new ones. We're installing new ones but we're losing existing ones almost at the same rate and I've seen statistics about this nationwide. So are you aware of any state or federal or local governments anywhere in the country that are doing anything to address that because it is a major, it's going to be a major problem with EV deployment. Thank you, John Moral, OEC. I believe the readiness plan strategy is looking at this issue. I can't speak to it directly. But one of the other things that the plan is addressing is what kinds of partnerships and arrangements could be made with the locality that would help ensure the uptime of these four things that we do partner on. I know that the readiness strategy is looking at best practices from around the country. So we can follow up with more. Yeah, I would appreciate that because it just seems to be a problem that's getting worse each day and without some type of an incentive program for the operators, I don't know how you're going to get these up and running again. And like I said, it is a frustrating thing for EV users. And I think is going to be a real obstacle moving forward. And it's not just our problem. It's a nationwide problem. I think we may want to look at that, maybe lead with some ideas of what we could do locally, at least with that challenge. Supervisor Poucher. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much. I really just want to start with, you know, in all of the work done this, the whole meeting people where they are, and really starting with information that's digestible, that's understandable, that makes sense to us, lay people. And I really think your team has come such a long way. This is something that, you know, I think we don't struggle as much to understand. And so we know as you go out to the community, it will make more sense. And we can really own more of this work, right? So just thank you for all of that and breaking it down by program and especially partnering with our community engagement teams, especially groups like Second Story. I love all of this. I just want to know how we can help you more in some of these areas that really stand out to me and you really brought up, I love the tree plantings that we're focusing on urban heat islands. One question that comes up and that you mentioned the tree survive ability and resilient trees, that's an area where I think education is still a big component. I was just talking to the park authority yesterday about this, right? How do we work together to better understand what it means, right? To ensure that we have trees that are healthy, right? That are non-invasive, and that all trees are equal. And so sometimes it may look like we're cutting down trees, but really it's to ensure that the healthier trees, that the healthier environment, that the more, you know, native and non-invasive environment is able to grow and thrive together. So that's one area I don't know if you're looking at, but I think there's an opportunity across the board. Schools have a lot of trees, parks have a lot of trees, we have a lot of trees where we could perhaps help you with that and help each other on the education piece of that. And then the other big one that I love is that through all the programs from charge up to the county business partners, they're definitely moving in the right direction. So if there are more ways that we or the county agencies can help support that work, again, the more this becomes owned by a whole community, understood and highlighted by everyone, I think the farther will get. So appreciate you on that. And then please let us know if there are ways we can help support that. Thank you. I think one thing we can all do, I can do a better job in the climate action snapshot that we shared with everyone. We have the update on the sustained Fairfax challenge and if all of us promote that opportunity in our respective newsletters and channels, I think it will help us kickstart it. We already have some good numbers there but that's something very tangible that we can all do to help folks who want to make changes, make changes. Supervisor Beerman? Just a few questions about slide seven and the Green Business Partners program. I'm channeling Supervisor Stork. So it says as of 2024, there was a membership of 51 businesses. How many businesses have you signed up this year? I can get those numbers to you, but I think it's around six right now. What makes a business an ally, makes a business a leader, and makes a business a member? All right. Well, being a leader, as in its title, they will have to be accredited through a third-party organization. We didn't want to be an accrediting body as an organization, so relying on those independent certifying bodies like eco-batists that the county's procurement program participates in as well as a number of other that might be specific to restaurants, energy star as well. Or if since there is a cost to certification, that can be in the many thousands of dollars that may be a barrier for smaller businesses. And so for us, the smaller businesses or micro businesses to be a leader, if they have been recognized through a third party for the work that they are doing and have incorporated sustainability as part of their business model, those would be all the criteria for a business to become a leader. For a member business and this is what I think is really unique about the county program because there are more businesses out there that need to be more sustainable. So we wanted to open the doors for those businesses that are interested or have just started thinking about sustainability and And so we ask these businesses who have just started to at least implement three practices in their first year of membership and starting this summer will be reaching out to track progress on those providing resources and other engagement opportunities that I've described to bring them into the program itself. Allies were an add-on category after we launched the program in 2023 because there are businesses like ANOVA that aren't a for-profit business they're qualified as a non-profit or there are businesses that work with a lot of businesses in Fairfax County supporting their sustainability measures but don't have a physical address. So could we create this third category of allies are businesses that support businesses in Fairfax County to be more sustainable in their actions. Okay. Great. I mean, this seems like a real continuing opportunity. So anyway that we can help, we or otherwise, can help continuing to push this program to get more businesses signed up and also, you know, to have better metrics about exactly what you were talking about with recruiting and retention, with benefits to businesses, and some of that is business to business conversations. I was actually at that Green Business Partners social groundswell. I think Supervisor Lock and Shaw was the host but it was great. Last question which is you said the GMU partnership supported a green business member sorry green business partner member with business development plan is there an opportunity to scale that up and is there an opportunity to provide those types of services to businesses that are not yet green business partner members in order to bring more into the program. That was a one-time opportunity working with the director of the Masters of Business Administration program where that was a specific project that year that the Masters graduate students were focusing on. We certainly are keeping our channels of communication open and continuing to look for those types of opportunities to grow our resources. Like partnerships are just key to growing our programs, building our resources of the county. And for example, we are an environmental organization, so allies to the Green Business Partner Program also include Fairfax County Economic Development Authority that speak the businesses language as well as Department of Economic Initiatives as well. Okay, hopefully that whatever that professor was who had that idea for the project we'll want to do it with his next or her next class. Thank you. Okay, any other questions? John? Thank you all for your interest and in the spirit of asking how can we help? I'd like to suggest that you follow our, we have a LinkedIn page that's specific to the Green Business Partners program. to the extent that we have a Facebook page our office does and so notices, reposts of our social media news and inclusion in your newsletters are very, very helpful for reaching your constituents. So that would be much appreciated. Great. All right If there's nothing else, we are adjourned. Thank you all. Appreciate your work.